6.  The applicant was born in 1955 and lives in Amsterdam.
7.  In 1967 her parents built a holiday home without planning permission on land situated in Zutendaal (Belgium). According to the applicant, however, the house was built in 1962.
8.  Following her mother’s death, a deed of partition was drawn up on 6 January 1986 between the applicant (who, inheriting from her mother, became the remainderman of half of the property) and her father. That deed, which specifically mentions the existence of the building, was registered with the Mortgage Registrar at the Ministry of Finance and a registration fee was paid.
9.  The applicant’s father died on 21 August 1993 and she became the full and sole owner of the entire property. On inheriting the property, the applicant specifically declared in the notarised deed of distribution that the plot was a holiday home. The deeds were registered with the local authorities and the applicant paid the inheritance tax. From then on, the applicant paid an annual property tax (précompte immobilier) and second‑residence tax on the holiday home. According to the applicant, it went without saying that her father had also paid the relevant taxes on the house.
10.  The applicant carried out renovations on the house costing 50,000 euros (EUR) and had the trees on the adjoining land felled.
11.  In 1994 the partly government-controlled Flemish water-supply company carried out works to connect the house to the drainage and water-supply systems. There was no reaction from the local authorities at that time.
12.  On 27 January 1994 a report was drawn up by a police officer who noted that trees had been felled on the property in breach of Article 81, paragraph 3, of the Flemish forestry decree of 13 June 1990.
13.  On 22 February 1994 a report was drawn up by a police officer who noted that the holiday home had been erected in 1967 without planning permission and that it was located in a forested area in which no such permission could be issued. The report also noted that the exterior and roof of the house had been renovated.
14.  On 8 August 1994 the applicant voluntarily reported to the police to make a statement, which was placed on record.
15.  By a decision of 11 October 1994, the municipal council (collège des bourgmestre et échevins) asked the planning inspector to issue an opinion on any remedial action to be taken. By a letter of 19 June 1995, the planning inspector applied to the public prosecutor for the site to be restored to its original condition.
16.   Two reports dated 26 March 1996 and 8 January 1997 mention that the police had sought to question the applicant again but had found it difficult to contact her and that she was temporarily unable to travel for health reasons.
17.  At the request of the Tongeren public prosecutor, the applicant was questioned in Amsterdam on 25 March 1997 by a Dutch police officer. A report was drawn up on that occasion.
18.  On 18 May 1998 the public prosecutor asked the local police to confirm whether or not the building in issue still existed.
19.  A report of 16 June 1998 established that the situation had not changed.
20.  The Tongeren public prosecutor issued the applicant with a summons to appear in court on 12 May 1999, firstly, for having maintained a holiday home, erected without planning permission, between 27 January 1994 and 28 April 1999 and, secondly, for having felled approximately fifty pine trees in breach of the above-mentioned Flemish forestry decree. According to the applicant, there were at least four other houses built without permission in the same forested areas, which had neither been the subject of reports establishing that an offence had been committed nor of prosecution.
21.  On 25 June 1999 the Tongeren Criminal Court issued an interlocutory judgment in absentia, since the applicant had not been duly summoned.
22.  On 6 January 2000 she was once again summoned to appear before the Tongeren Criminal Court.
23.  On 26 May 2000 that court acquitted the applicant of the above-mentioned charges. It held in particular that after twenty-seven years the applicant could legitimately assume, as could any reasonably prudent citizen, that maintaining the building in issue would no longer constitute an offence. The court further held that it did not have jurisdiction to deal with the planning inspector’s application to have the land restored to its original condition. The prosecutor appealed.
24.  By a judgment of 6 February 2002, the Antwerp Court of Appeal upheld the judgment in so far as the applicant was acquitted of the charge of felling the trees. However, it found her guilty of maintaining a building erected without planning permission, pursuant to Article 146 of the town and country planning decree of 18 May 1999, and changed the impugned period to between 22 August 1993 and 28 April 1999, having regard to the date on which the applicant’s father had died.
25.  In her submissions the applicant had alleged a violation of the reasonable-time requirement under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, considering that the criminal proceedings had been conducted beyond that time-limit and that after such a long period there had been an interference with her rights of defence, in particular since it had been impossible for her to prove that the house had been built before 1962. She had also criticised the failure of the authorities to act, pointing out that her parents had paid the second-residence tax, that a notarised deed mentioning the building had been registered by the authorities, that she had paid inheritance tax on property that included the building, that extensive infrastructure works had been carried out by a partly government-controlled company with no reaction on the part of the local authorities and that for many years no legal action had been taken. She had also alleged a violation of the principle of protection of the legitimate expectations of citizens and complained of discrimination in comparison with neighbouring property owners.
26.  The Court of Appeal found that a deed of partition drawn up in 1986 and signed by the applicant established that the holiday home had been built in 1967 and concurred furthermore with the findings contained in the report drawn up on 22 February 1994. The Court of Appeal considered that the applicant knew or should have known that the building had been erected without planning permission. As a reasonable and prudent citizen, and even taking account of the attitude of the authorities as she had described it, the applicant could not have inferred that the situation was totally legal and that no proceedings would be brought against her. The Court of Appeal found that the applicant had acted most imprudently by proceeding to renovate the premises after the death of her father. It also found that the fact that four other dwellings had also been erected in the same forested area without planning permission and without their owners being prosecuted did not amount to discrimination.
27.  With regard, more particularly, to compliance with the reasonable-time requirement, the Court of Appeal found that the length of the criminal proceedings had been unreasonable but that this did not alter the fact that the offence had been established and that the applicant had, since 1994, been liable to prosecution. Considering, firstly, that overrunning the reasonable time did not cause the proceedings to become time-barred and, secondly, that account should be taken of the specific circumstances of the case, and in particular of the fact that the applicant had no criminal record, the Court of Appeal merely pronounced a finding of guilt against the applicant.
28.  Referring to the planning inspector’s application lodged pursuant to Articles 149 et seq. of the above-mentioned decree of 18 May 1999, which it deemed to be reasonable, the Court of Appeal ordered the applicant to restore the site to its former condition and to demolish the building within one year of the judgment becoming final, with a fine of EUR 125 per day’s delay. It also authorised the municipal council or the planning inspector to enforce the order at the expense of the applicant in the event of non-compliance with the demolition order. The applicant was also ordered to pay the costs and expenses of the proceedings.
29.  The applicant appealed on points of law.
30.  By a judgment of 7 January 2003, the Court of Cassation dismissed the appeal.
31.  On grounds based on a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, the applicant claimed that the length of the criminal proceedings had been unreasonable and it could therefore be concluded that they were time-barred.
32.  The Court of Cassation held that exceeding a reasonable time did not cause criminal proceedings to become time-barred and that, consequently, the Court of Appeal had not been bound to base its decision on that point.
33.  The applicant also submitted that, bearing in mind that the Court of Appeal had merely pronounced a finding of guilt against her, she could not be bound to restore the site to its original condition or to pay the costs of the proceedings.
34.  The Court of Cassation responded that restoration of the site to its original condition did not constitute a penalty but a civil measure, in the same way as the payment of the full costs of the proceedings at the fixed rate, and that consequently these measures were not inconsistent with a simple finding of guilt.
35.  The court also dismissed the ground based on Article 8 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 whereby the applicant alleged that after a thirty-year period during which they had tolerated the situation, thus creating an apparently lawful situation, the authorities could no longer rely on the public interest to justify interference with the peaceful enjoyment of her property rights and respect for her private life.
36.  The Court of Cassation found that the Court of Appeal had held, in its unfettered discretion, that the applicant had been most imprudent in maintaining the house without planning permission, that the measure sought by the planning inspector was reasonable and that, consequently, that ground of appeal was inadmissible.
37.  The house was demolished in July 2004 pursuant to an enforcement order. According to an expert, the value of the house at the material time was EUR 62,635. The demolition costs amounted to EUR 3,025.